Traditions with mint

Mint, a fresh and cooling herb, flavours tea, salads, sauces and drinks across the world: Moroccan mint tea, Indian chutney, British mint sauce, Vietnamese rolls and Cuban mojitos. It grows easily and spreads quickly, and has long been a plant of hospitality, offered to guests and strewn on floors. Different mints are used in different countries. These pages describe the traditions where mint features, and what it signifies.

Where it is used

In Morocco, mint tea is the symbol of welcome, poured from a height into glasses. In India and Pakistan, mint chutney goes with samosas and kebabs, and in Iran, fresh herbs including mint are served at every meal. In Britain, mint sauce comes with lamb, in Greece, it is in tzatziki and in Vietnam, it is wrapped in rice paper rolls. In Cuba, it flavours the mojito.

What it means

Mint stands for hospitality. In ancient Greece, rooms were rubbed with it before a feast, and in the Middle East, a sprig is placed in a guest's glass. In the Moroccan tea ceremony, three glasses are served, each one stronger, in a saying that the first is as gentle as life, the second as strong as love and the third as bitter as death. It is also the herb of the Jewish Passover bitter dish in some communities.